The Supreme Court has upheld state bans restricting transgender athletes' participation in women's and girls' sports, ruling that state schools can limit these sports to biological females under Title IX.
The decision, which split along ideological lines, supports existing bans in Idaho and West Virginia and strengthens similar restrictions in more than two dozen other states. Idaho was the first state to enact such a ban, with Republican Gov. Brad Little signing the bill into law in 2020.
Plaintiffs' attorneys in both cases argued that the state bans violate the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. In the West Virginia case, attorneys also contended that the state's law violates Title IX.
Conversely, the solicitors general for Idaho and West Virginia argued that the laws are designed to ensure fair and equal opportunities for girls and women in sports. These rulings come amid a broader trend of state-level restrictions on transgender athletes and follow actions taken during the Trump Administration that targeted transgender rights. In his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order stating that the U.S. would recognize only "two sexes, male and female," and characterizing gender identity as "disconnected from biological reality." In February of that year, another executive order, titled "Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports," directed federal agencies to withdraw funding from schools permitting transgender students to compete on female sports teams.